How a Pa. Senate bill about SEPTA crime and DA Larry Krasner turned into a fight over words

HARRISBURG — In their latest attempt to circumvent Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, Republican senators want the state attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate crimes on SEPTA.

The legislation, which is unlikely to be considered by a Democratic majority in the state House, faced strong opposition from Democrats on the Senate floor earlier this month.

Philadelphia Democrats say the bill is a form of voter suppression, pointing to Krasner’s reelection by a wide margin in 2021. Philadelphians support Krasner’s progressive policies to reduce mass incarceration and divert nonviolent offenders away from the criminal justice system, several Philly Democratic senators argued.

“We go down a dangerous road if we are to start suggesting that when the majority rule in the General Assembly disagrees with the way local prosecutors … exercise their discretion, and we remove that authority because we disagree,” said Sen. Sharif Street (D., Philadelphia) during debate on the Senate floor May 2.

House Republicans impeached Krasner last year, but the impeachment trial in the Senate has been postponed indefinitely.

Philadelphia’s Democratic lawmakers offered a fiery rebuke of the proposal on the Senate floor, calling it an unnecessary effort to undermine the district attorney and one that won’t lessen crime.

However, Republicans would not let the Democrats describe the bill as “voter suppression,” deeming it off topic and pausing debate to protest the comment. Democrats, in turn, called that an act of censorship — and an example of a national trend of Democratic lawmakers from marginalized communities being silenced by Republican-controlled state legislatures.

Sen. Vincent Hughes (D., Philadelphia) was the first senator to try to call it voter suppression.

“What this does is say that the citizens of Philadelphia cannot elect the district attorney that they want to elect,” Hughes said. “What they say to the 1.6 million people who live in the city of Philadelphia that you are second-class citizens.

“Damn it, I’m not a second-class citizen. No one from the city of Philadelphia are second-class citizens,” Hughes added in his passionate speech. “This is another form of voter suppression, that is all this is.”

Sen. Wayne Langerholc (R., Cambria), who sponsored the bill, interrupted him, using a “point of order,” which allows the opposing party to pause the remarks of a speaker and explain why they are inappropriate for the debate, similar to an objection in a court. He said Hughes’ remarks were off topic from the bill.

“There’s no point of order to be had here,” Hughes yelled over Langerholc.

Hughes was allowed to continue his remarks as long as he did not repeat the accusation of voter suppression.

Soon after, Sen. Art Haywood (D., Philadelphia) offered his own remarks on the bill, before he was eventually paused for also calling the proposal an act of voter suppression.

“‘Voter suppression’ are not fighting words. They are not curse words. They’re not profanity,” Haywood said in a virtual press conference May 4. “We have seen a pattern of Republican, state-elected bodies taking action to silence those with whom they don’t agree. This is unacceptable.”

The wrangling comes as Democrats in other states have faced discipline under rules in those legislative bodies about decorum and debate.

Two Black Democratic lawmakers in Tennessee were expelled from the state House for breaking the chamber’s rules when they joined a gun control protest in the Capitol following a school shooting in Nashville in which six people died. In Montana, the state’s first openly transgender lawmaker was censured and barred from speaking on the House floor until she would apologize for her comments about an anti-trans bill.

Haywood, like Hughes, eventually conveyed his concerns without using the direct words “voter suppression” but argued that Republicans agree the proposal is voter suppression while rejecting that term.

“The only dispute is what you call it,” Haywood said on the floor.

A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) defended GOP leaders’ actions.

“No member was ‘censored or silenced’ during the extensive debate,” said Kate Flessner, a spokesperson for Pittman. “The rules of the Senate are in place to ensure order and decorum during debate, and members were simply reminded to keep their comments directed to the subject of the bill.”

“While there may be differing views on legislation, respect during Senate session is crucially important,” Flessner added.

Republicans in Harrisburg have tried to take action against Philadelphia’s progressive district attorney, whom they view as failing to uphold the state’s laws. The House impeached Krasner last year and an impeachment trial was set to start in the Senate in January, before it was postponed indefinitely at the start of the year.

The state House, then controlled by Republicans, voted to impeach Krasner last year. But a Commonwealth Court decision later dismissed the articles of impeachment as legally insufficient, and the Senate postponed the trial indefinitely.

Langerholc first floated the idea of a SEPTA special prosecutor last year, adding it to a bill that would have changed how the state defines a curb so cities could create more parking-protected bike lanes.

Langerholc reintroduced the proposal this year as a stand-alone bill aimed only at Krasner that would allow the state attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor for SEPTA crimes and would expire once Philadelphia elected a new district attorney. Senate Bill 140 passed the Senate on May 2 by a vote of 28-22, along party lines.

“What is happening to our country?” Langerholc said of the bill on the Senate floor. “It’s not denying city residents of Philadelphia the right to choose their distinct attorney. … The problem is [Krasner] is not prosecuting. He’s not doing his job.”

Krasner is not up for reelection again until 2025.

The District Attorney’s Office opens cases for most SEPTA police arrests, a Krasner spokesperson said, and SEPTA police have arrested significantly fewer people since 2019. So far this year, SEPTA police have made 41 arrests, and the DA’s office has opened cases in 36 of them.

Republican-controlled statehouses have tried to retaliate or block progressive prosecutors in other large U.S. cities from making changes in their offices. Just last week, St. Louis’ top prosecutor, Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, announced her resignation as the Missouri state legislature advanced a bill to strip her of her power and give state oversight over the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to that state’s attorney general.

SEPTA, for its part, supports the intent of Langerholc’s bill to “make crime on SEPTA a higher priority for law enforcement,” a spokesperson said in an email.

However, Attorney General Michelle Henry opposes it.

Her spokesperson, Brett Hambright, said in an email that Henry was not consulted on the bill and found “several significant issues and costs associated with the proposal” but would not elaborate further.

Jane Roh, Krasner’s spokesperson, called SB 140 a bad-faith attempt “to attack the discretion of this county prosecutor’s office and no other, as well as attempts to undermine the will of voters who overwhelmingly elected and reelected him to serve as their chief prosecutor.”